Ticket Information

Friday 1:15 - 2 (SUNSET A+B)
The making of "Niko and the Sword of Light" an Indie Point of View with Bobby Chiu, Kei Acedera, Adam Jeffcoat and Jim Bryson

Join the Imaginism and StudioNX team in this passionate and inspirational session of how four friends got together to create their fully traditionally animated comic book, "Niko and the Sword of Light". From the USA to Mexico to Canada to the UK, a handful of people from different countries teamed up to make this project an indie success
story.

Want to adapt your comic book, graphic novel or character into a film or TV script but don’t know where to begin? Writing coach Pilar Alessandra will get you on your feet by helping you log line your idea, find a structure and create an outline. Class includes take-home handouts.

This session will demonstrate how mythical creatures are scientifically reimagined as living species, especially appropriate for the film industry. This will be conveyed via examples of my actual paleontological reconstruction work and then using the sample principles in designing and “reconstructing” creatures from mythology. This will be done in power point format, and I’ll be cross referencing creatures I’ve developed for a variety of film productions.

Friday 7:30 - 8:15 (SUNSET A+B) Views from the Kitchen Table: Life from the Waist Up with Ted Ty - Analysis of the emotional dynamics of acting at a table, and techniques for animating those acting moments.

Fri 1 - 1:45 Vine A+BThe Conceptual Mind with Andrew Bosley - The theme for the workshop will be the importance of the Idea. I will discuss the resources and inspirations available to concept artists, vis dev artists, and writers and explore ways to find that new Idea.

Fri 2:15 - 3 (VINE A+B)
Turbo Character Animation Development with Dave Burgess - An in depth, behind the scenes look into the development process for the snail and human characters from DreamWorks Animation's Turbo. This will include many of the very first performance tests.

Fri 3 - 4:15 (EXEC) Stand Up and Compete" Hello.......Reality Check with Darren Kiner. Our industry is being globalized and our jobs are leaving the country. Is there anything that we can do about it? Yes there is! We can fight to be the very best artists and to compete globally! We can promote ourselves effectively and become more educated about these issues, if we want jobs. We can build an animation community that bands together and looks out for each other. We can learn about trade laws and how we can use countervailing duties (and other tools) to stop work from leaving. Come to this talk and learn about what we can all do to help. Together!

Fri 4:00pm - 4:45pm (EXEC BOARDROOM) A presentation done by the author showing artwork that has never been seen before.
Tinker Bell: An Evolution is a full biography of the fiery little fairy. Designed in collaboration with the Animation Research library, it contains artwork that has never been seen before. The book is heavily illustrated and highly detailed.

Saturday 10 - 10:45 (SUNSET A+B)Animation Writing PART 1: Your Condensed Semester with Rob Edwards - In his seminar, studio film and television writer Rob Edwards will delve into the history of animation writing, the evolution of the script and what it’s like to write with a seasoned animation team. But how does one write for and proactively work on an animation film? Many writers spend endless hours alone outlining, plotting and putting their words down on paper. But as a hired writer, one becomes part of a tight team in which the writing schedule revolves around the filmmaking process. Rob will discuss this along with troubleshooting techniques when obstacles arise. Culminating nearly three decades of writing for film and television in Los Angeles, Rob Edwards has developed a plethora of tools that he’s used to write and consult on several projects at Disney / Pixar. These are the tools that he wished he had learned in film school. Now Rob is sharing his writing wisdom and creative tools with those who are interested in bettering their craft as animation writers.

Sat 11:15 - 12:00 (SUNSET A+B) In the workshop, Steve Kaplan will screen sequences from animated comedy films and analyze the sequences and show how they might have been successfully revised following the principles of comic story and character development.

Pacing, camera angles, staging, overlapping action, where do you begin? In this story intensive our guest instructor Giancarlo Volpe will give his vast knowledge on his methodology of breaking down Dramatic and Action scenes. The demands of movies and TV productions require ever-increasing creativity with these types of scenes and we will show you the steps to unlocking your own personal dramatic/ action star from within. It’s not good enough anymore to draw cool camera angles. Get the insights into layering drama, on top of staging, combined with rock solid camera techniques and how to represent each in your storyboards.

No previous experience necessary. Anyone willing to better his or her storytelling skills is welcome to attend.

Day one Friday November 15thWe get you familiar to terminology in filmmaking. We show you live demos and video examples of the art of dramatic scenes from a variety of sources packed full with instructor tips, tricks, and explanations. We will split up and do a group exercise; this will prepare you for our day two.

Day two Saturday November 16thWe continue where we left off on day 1 with more lectures and demos; including action scenes!

Then we lead you into groups to work to create an action scene together using our assigned topic. This section lasts 25 minutes and will conclude with a select few getting the opportunity to pitch their created scene to the group getting a live critique from our instructor and the class. This builds on the team studio dynamics found in real story departments while applying our skills learned throughout the course.

A sketchbook and tools to draw with are required.

2 sessions of 2 hours each *There will be (3) 2-5 minute breaks in each class period day

- Join Creature Designer Terryl Whitlatch as she creates an imaginary animal from beginning to end, explaining her process as she goes along. You are encouraged to bring your art materials and follow along.

Terryl will be using the Grey Ink Pro 10pc Copic Marker set, which is offered to all CTN attendees at an exclusive discount, which may be pre-ordered at store.copicmarker.com or purchased at the Copic Booth (B12&B13) during the conference.

Use code CTN13 at checkout to receive the discount online & purchase by November 1st to receive in time for the show.

Sat 1:30 - 2:15 (VINE A+B) An Art Driven Approach with Brian McEntee - Visual Storytelling: An art-driven approach to the process of making an animated feature film. Production Designer—Art Director, Brian P. McEntee, offers a “how to” guide for taking your idea from concept to screen while keeping visual storytelling in the driver’s seat through every stage of the production process.

Sat 2:45 - 3:30 (VINE A+B) Your portfolio is in a stack of 10,000 others going for the same opening. How do you stand out? How do you get your foot in the door? Join Tyler Carter, Blue Sky vis dev artist, as he lays out key things to successfully transition from school to your dream job. In this talk, Tyler focuses on crucial insights and perspective gained through his internships at Pixar and Disney, school, and film, DreamGiver

Sat 4 - 4:45 (Parlor 123) Surviving and Thriving in Animation/Art School with Scott Wright - With so many students going to animation schools. How do you stand out? How do you get the most for your money? How do you get a job after, or even during school? Scott Wright with nearly 20 years in the animation industry and 4 years teaching will discuss these questions and more during his lecture.

Sat 5:15 - 6:15 Vine A+BA future for animation - working from home on great projects with Bobby Beck

Over the last several years there’s been major advancements in cloud based technologies that are bringing the world closer together. Animation Mentor has been focusing their efforts to bring those advancements together to bridge the gap and push forward on an alternative future for artists. If you desire to work from home on great projects then you don’t want to miss this.

This session will give 10 essential tips on how to avoid the most common but unknown mistakes we all do with our audio or when we prepare the files we'll deliver to our sound designer. Included are tips to improve the understanding of digital audio and how to handle properly the files you have for deliveries.

Sat 1:30 - 2:15 (EXEC) The Noble Approach: Maurice Noble and the Zen of Animation Design with Tod Polson - Tod Polson presents "The Noble Approach" which examines the life and animation philosophy of Maurice Noble, the noted American animation background artist and layout designer whose contributions to the industry span more than 60 years.

Sat 7:30pm - 9pm A concentrated look at Eric’s career in television commercials, the petri dish where he learned his craft. The presentation will be peppered with many ads for both England and America, as well as Eric’s anecdotes from the journey that include Richard Williams, Oscar Grillo, Ken Harris, Art Babbitt, Tissa David, Bob Kurtz, John Cleese, Miriam Margolyes, and John Hurt, amongst others. Also showing will be clips from several outside projects that fell outside the Disney realm over the years.

SUN 11/17 - The Five Most Important Anatomical Rules for Animators with Stuart Sumida
more info

Sun 3:15pm - 4:00pm (Sunset A+B) "Stuart Sumida describes the five anatomical topics on which he speaks and lectures most frequently when he works with animation studios, whether in artist development, character-specific consultation, or at film festivals and art schools. Although he has worked with many studios on over fifty films and hundreds of characters and creatures, these five principles are the most common and useful concepts that he has presented to the likes of DreamWorks,Walt Disney Feature Animation, Pixar, MPC, Double Negative, Framestore, Blue Sky, ARC/Starz, Animex, Filmakadamie, FMX, SONY Pictures Imageworks, Laika, ILM, Animation Mentor, and others."

Sat 11:30 - 12:15 (EXEC BOARDROOM)With new technology the 2D art and animation world face a potential revolution, somewhat similar to that enjoyed by the indie music industry not too long ago. Today 2D artists and animators have tools at their disposal that will enable them to create, market and distribute their own individual work - particularly through the emerging marketplace of animated graphic novels, comic books and cartoons. Award-winning animator, Tony White, has been teaching high school and college level students for some time now on the secrets of creating their own animated graphic novels within an interactive PDF format. In this talk Tony shares his experiences, shows some of his students excellent digital work and even shares a little of his other pioneering work - including eBooks, an online program of 2D animation mastery, and his own "2D Academy" where he hopes that students will one day be able to apprentice with master animators on ground-breaking projects while they study through advanced animation masterclasses. Suffice to say, Tony is daring to become more optimistic on the state of indie-based 2D animation industry in the USA and beyond!"

Event Details

1-day and 3-day pass holders will receive an email notifying them when they can register for Workshops and Conversations With A Creator (Note: you can only sign up for 1 ticket per session)

1-day and 3-day passes include all the premiere presentations that take place in the City Ballroom and the CTN East Tent. In addition to these presentations, CTN also offers Workshops and Conversations With A Creator. Due to limited seating in Workshops and Conversations With A Creator require a small fee to reserve your seat.

Workshops are an opportunity to dig deeper and learn specific techniques or crafts from a variety of professionals in our industry. All workshops are 45 min however some after hours workshops and special case workshops do run longer.

If you do not have a 1-day or a 3-day pass you can purchase one CLICK HERE

All workshops take place in either location named Sunset A/B and Vine A/B or the Executive Boardroom.

All conversations with a creator take place in one of the Parlor rooms 123 or 125.

Be sure to check the overall schedule to make sure you are not missing out on something else at the same time.

Workshops and Conversations with a Creator tickets are non-refundable unless the session is cancelled.